All products at Arianne Delaney Jewellery are handmade using carefully chosen natural materials and recycled metals such as Brass, Sterling Silver, Gold Vermeil and solid Gold. All our products are lead and nickel free.
If taken care off properly, your jewellery will last you a very long time and we recommend you follow the below tips on how to keep your jewellery pretty and shiny.
GENERAL JEWELLERY CARE TIPS
- Avoid leaving exposed to water - immediately dry after contact with water.
- Remove before going to sleep and avoid wearing your jewellery when work outs, sunbathing or when bathing. We recommend to apply any lotions and perfume well before putting your jewellery on.
- Remove any jewellery when during household cleaning. In particular chlorine and bleach accelerate tarnishing and should be avoided.
- Ideally store your pieces of jewellery separately, so that they don't rub together or become tangled. Also, when taking your jewellery with you on holiday, we advise transporting it in a little box to avoid any pressure on your jewellery. We recommend storing your jewellery in the complimentary gift box or pouch.
- When cleaning your jewellery with a soft fabric or polishing cloth, rub the piece in one direction rather than circular motions.
PRECIOUS METALS - CLEANING TIPS
Gold-filled
Some jewellery items from our older collections are made using 14ct gold-filled. Each of our gold-filled jewellery pieces contain the 14ct/20 hallmark guaranteeing the quality of your jewellery.
Unlike plated metals, gold-filled is legally required to contain 5% (or 1/20) gold by weight, and on average it has 100 times the amount of gold as plating. If taken good care, gold-filled jewellery can last a lifetime.
For daily maintenance, rinse it with lukewarm water and dry with soft polishing cloth. You can deep clean by soaking gold-filled jewellery in warm water (with a bit of fairy soap) and gently scrub with an ultrasoft toothbrush. Rinse it off and dry it well before storing.
Gold Vermeil
At Arianne Delaney, we use a high standard of Gold Vermeil jewellery whereby we apply a thick layer of recycled 18ct Yellow Gold (minimum thickness of 2.5 microns) over 925 Sterling Silver.
We do not offer gold plated jewellery, which is jewellery made of a base metal (most often brass) coated with a thin layer of gold which usually wears off after 3 months.
Although Gold Vermeil does last, it is not permanent and it will face eventually when worn frequently. However, as we apply such a thick layer, the gold layer does not flake or rub off any earlier than 3-5 years of wearing.
To slow down the tarnishing process even more, we recommend following all the General Jewellery Care Tips as set out above.
To clean your gold plated jewellery, we recommend wiping it down with a damp cotton ball or micro fibre cloth after every wearing to remove smudges and surface soil. Please avoid using a polishing cloth or silver/gold jewellery cleaner, as this may strip away the plating.
If the gold colour has gone and you're left with a silver piece, we can always replate this for you so you're set for another 5 years.
Sterling Silver
We use recycled 925 Sterling Silver for our silver and gold vermeil jewellery. With proper care, your silver Silver jewellery will retain its beauty and character for many generations to come.
As a metal, Sterling Silver naturally tarnishes, especially when exposed to salty air or products containing sulphur. However, if worn regularly it typically needs less care, so we strongly encourages you to wear your silver jewellery every day.
A special silver cleaner can be used to clean Sterling Silver pieces. Using only a small amount of silver jewelry cleaner on a soft cloth, gently rub the silver several times. Then rinse the silver thoroughly in warm water and carefully dry. This will remove the tarnish and make your silver jewellery look like new again.
Brass
Having a beautiful golden tone, brass naturally adds warmth to our every day objects.
Brass is naturally yellow in colour, and so the golden tone will always remain. Just like any other metals, brass may tarnish over time - rubbing on a polishing cloth or denim fabric will brighten up your brass objects again. With brass the tip is, the more it's used or handled, the more it will shine brightly.
SEMI PRECIOUS STONES
Different gemstones have different hardness features. Where precious gemstones such as Diamonds and Sapphires have a high hardness, meaning they won't scratch easily, some gemstones are not as robust and will need more care.
As a rule, please refrain from wearing gemstones around hot water, harsh chemicals and cleaners. You may clean most gemstones with a soft, damp cloth after wearing.
Very porous stones however, like turquoise, moonstone and emeralds should be cleaned using an untreated, dry, soft cloth only. We recommend avoiding the use of tissue paper or paper towels as they can occasionally cause scratching.
NATURAL MATERIALS
- Wood, seeds and nuts: we advise to avoid any contact with water.
- Shells, Coral: originally from salty water, these should be totally fine in water. However, continuous contact with water may erode these organic materials. We recommend to always pat dry your jewellery with shells and coral.
- Pearls: they may look and feel robust, but are natural materials and can be fragile, so please handle them with love.
- Mother of Pearl: derived from sea shells, mother-of-pearl has a delicate shine and reflection. we recommend cleaning mother-of-pearl carefully using a soft dry cloth. As mother-of-pearl is a naturally soft substance, in time small scratches can appear on its surface.
- Feathers: our cruelty-free feather jewellery can be cleaned by gently washing it with lukewarm water and letting it dry naturally. To avoid your feather jewellery from fraying, we recommend storing it in the complimentary Lunar James gift pouch.
